Attention

The ShARC HPC cluster was decommissioned on the 30th of November 2023 at 17:00. It is no longer possible for users to access that cluster.

R

R

URL:

https://www.r-project.org/

Documentation:

https://www.r-project.org/

Versions:

3.3.2, 3.3.3, 3.4.0, 3.5.1, 3.6.3, 4.0.0, 4.0.2, 4.0.3, 4.2.1

R is a statistical computing language.

Interactive Usage

After connecting to ShARC, start an interactive session.

The latest version of R can be loaded with:

module load apps/R

Alternatively, you can load a specific version of R using one of the following:

module load apps/R/4.2.1/gcc-8.2.0
module load apps/R/4.0.3/gcc-8.2.0
module load apps/R/4.0.2/gcc-8.2.0
module load apps/R/4.0.0/gcc-10.1.0
module load apps/R/4.0.0/gcc-8.2.0
module load apps/R/3.6.3/gcc-8.2.0
module load apps/R/3.5.1/gcc-4.8.5
module load apps/R/3.4.0/gcc-4.8.5
module load apps/R/3.3.3/gcc-4.8.5
module load apps/R/3.3.2/gcc-4.8.5

R can then be run with:

$ R

Serial (one CPU) Batch usage

Here, we assume that you wish to run the program my_code.r on the system. With batch usage it is recommended to load a specific version of R, for example module load apps/R/4.2.1/gcc-8.2.0, to ensure the expected output is achieved.

First, you need to write a batch submission file. We assume you’ll call this my_job.sge:

#!/bin/bash
#$ -cwd                                # Run job from current directory
#$ -l rmem=4G                          # Request 4 gigabytes of memory

module load apps/R/4.2.1/gcc-8.2.0     # Recommended to load a specific version of R

R CMD BATCH my_code.r my_code.r.o$JOB_ID

Note that R must be called with both the CMD and BATCH options which tell it to run an R program, in this case my_code.r. If you do not do this, R will attempt to open an interactive prompt.

The final argument, my_code.r.o$JOBID, tells R to send output to a file with this name. Since $JOBID will always be unique, this ensures that all of your output files are unique. Without this argument R sends all output to a file called my_code.Rout.

Ensuring that my_code.r and my_job.sge are both in your current working directory, submit your job to the batch system

qsub my_job.sge

Replace my_job.sge with the name of your submission script.

Warning

By default, R will save variables in the workspace in the current directory (in a file called .RData) when a script exits and reload them when it starts from the same directory. To disable this, add the --no-save and --no-restore options to your command e.g. R CMD BATCH --no-save --no-restore my_code.r my_code.r.o$JOB_ID.

Graphical output

By default, graphical output from batch jobs is sent to a file called Rplots.pdf.

Installing additional packages

As you will not have permissions to install packages to the default folder, additional R packages can be installed to your home folder ~/. To create the appropriate folder, install your first package in R in interactive mode. Load an interactive R session as described above, and install a package with:

install.packages()

You will be prompted to create a personal package library. Choose ‘yes’. The package will download and install from a CRAN mirror (you may be asked to select a nearby mirror, which you can do simply by entering the number of your preferred mirror).

Once the chosen package has been installed, additional packages can be installed either in the same way, or by creating a .R script. An example script might look like:

install.packages("dplyr")
install.packages("devtools")

Call this using source(). For example if your script is called packages.R and is stored in your home folder, source this from an interactive R session with:

source("~/packages.R")

These additional packages will be installed without prompting to your personal package library.

To check your packages are up to date, and update them if necessary, run the following line from an R interactive session

update.packages(lib.loc = "~/R/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-library/4.0/")

The folder name after ~/R/ will likely change, but this can be completed with tab autocompletion from the R session. Ensure lib.loc folder is specified, or R will attempt to update the wrong library.

Warning

Notice that the personal package library path includes the version of R: if after installing some packages you switch to using a different major or minor version of R then you will need then to install those package for this new version.

R Packages that require external libraries

Some R packages require external libraries to be installed before you can install and use them. Since there are so many, we only install those libraries that have been explicitly requested by users of the system.

The associated R packages are not included in the system install of R, so you will need to install them yourself to your home directory following the instructions linked to below.

• geos This is the library required for the rgeos package.

• Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) and PROJ.7 These are the libraries required for the rgdal package.

Warning

To install R packages that require external libraries, the libraries need to be loaded prior to installing the r packages. E.g. to install package rgeos you would need to load geos, enter an interactive R session and then install rgeos:

module load libs/geos/3.6.1/gcc-4.9.4
R
install.packages("rgeos")

You may also need to module load those dependencies each time you use your R package.

See here more information on the available external libraries

Using the Rmath library in C Programs

The Rmath library allows you to access some of R’s functionality from a C program. For example, consider this C program:

#include <stdio.h>
#define MATHLIB_STANDALONE
#include "Rmath.h"

main(){
   double shape1,shape2,prob;

   shape1 = 1.0;
   shape2 = 2.0;
   prob = 0.5;

   printf("Critical value is %lf\n",qbeta(prob,shape1,shape2,1,0));
}

This makes use of R’s qbeta function. You can compile and run this on a worker node as follows.

After connecting to ShARC, start an interactive session on a worker node and load a version of R:

module load apps/R/4.2.1/gcc-8.2.0

Assuming the program is called test_rmath.c, compile with

gcc test_rmath.c -lRmath -lm -o test_rmath

For full details about the functions made available by the Rmath library, see section 6.7 of the document Writing R extensions

Versions of R with faster linear algebra

We have compiled versions of R using the Intel Compiler suite and the Intel MKL. These can be faster than this ‘standard’ version in some cases. For more details see R (Intel Build)

Installation Notes

These notes are primarily for administrators of the system.

Version 4.0.3

• What’s new in R version 4.0.3

This was a scripted install. It was compiled from source with gcc 8.2.0 and with --with-blas --with-lapack --enable-R-shlib --with-tcltk enabled. It was run in batch mode.

• install_r_4.0.3_gcc8.2.0.sh Downloads, compiles, tests and installs R 4.0.3 and the Rmath library.

• R 4.0.3 Modulefile located on the system at /usr/local/modulefiles/apps/R/4.0.3/

• Install log-files, including the output of the make check tests are available on the system at /usr/local/packages/apps/R/4.0.3/gcc-8.2.0/install_logs/

Version 4.0.2

• What’s new in R version 4.0.2

This was a scripted install. It was compiled from source with gcc 8.2.0 and with --with-blas --with-lapack --enable-R-shlib --with-tcltk enabled. It was run in batch mode.

• install_r_4.0.2_gcc8.2.0.sh Downloads, compiles, tests and installs R 4.0.3 and the Rmath library.

• R 4.0.2 Modulefile located on the system at /usr/local/modulefiles/apps/R/4.0.2/

• Install log-files, including the output of the make check tests are available on the system at /usr/local/packages/apps/R/4.0.2/gcc-8.2.0/install_logs/

Version 4.0.0

• What’s new in R version 4.0.0

This was a set of scripted installs. It was compiled from source with gcc 8.2.0 / gcc 10.1.0 with --with-blas --with-lapack --enable-R-shlib --with-tcltk enabled. It was run in installed with an interactive session mode.

• install-R4.0-gcc-8.2.0.sh Downloads, compiles, tests and installs R 4.0.0 and the Rmath library.

• install-R4.0-gcc-10.1.0.sh Downloads, compiles, tests and installs R 4.0.0 and the Rmath library.

• R 4.0.0 GCC 8.2.0 Modulefile located on the system at /usr/local/modulefiles/apps/R/4.0.0/

• R 4.0.0 GCC 10.1.0 Modulefile located on the system at /usr/local/modulefiles/apps/R/4.0.0/

• Install log-files, including the output of the make check tests are available on the system at /usr/local/packages/apps/R/4.0.0/gcc-8.2.0/install_logs/ and /usr/local/packages/apps/R/4.0.0/gcc-10.1/install_logs/

• PCRE2 was compiled as a dependency with the appropriate compilers for each.

Version 3.6.3

• What’s new in R version 3.6.3

This was a scripted install. It was compiled from source with gcc 8.2.0 and with --with-blas --with-lapack --enable-R-shlib --with-tcltk enabled. It was run in batch mode.

• install_r_3.6.3_gcc8.2.0.sh Downloads, compiles, tests and installs R 3.6.3 and the Rmath library.

• R 3.6.3 Modulefile located on the system at /usr/local/modulefiles/apps/R/3.6.3/

• Install log-files, including the output of the make check tests are available on the system at /usr/local/packages/apps/R/3.6.3/gcc-8.2.0/install_logs/

Version 3.5.1

• What’s new in R version 3.5.1

This was a scripted install. It was compiled from source with gcc 4.8.5 and with --enable-R-shlib enabled. It was run in batch mode.

• install_r_3.5.1_gcc4.8.5.sh Downloads, compiles, tests and installs R 3.5.1 and the Rmath library.

• R 3.5.1 Modulefile located on the system at /usr/local/modulefiles/apps/R/3.5.1/

• Install log-files, including the output of the make check tests are available on the system at /usr/local/packages/apps/R/3.5.1/gcc-4.8.5/install_logs/

Version 3.4.0

• What’s new in R version 3.4.0

This was a scripted install. It was compiled from source with gcc 4.8.5 and with --enable-R-shlib enabled. It was run in batch mode.

• install_r_3.4.0_gcc4.8.5.sh Downloads, compiles, tests and installs R 3.4.0 and the Rmath library.

• R 3.4.0 Modulefile located on the system at /usr/local/modulefiles/apps/R/3.4.0/

• Install log-files, including the output of the make check tests are available on the system at /usr/local/packages/apps/R/3.4.0/gcc-4.8.5/install_logs/

Version 3.3.3

• What’s new in R version 3.3.3

This was a scripted install. It was compiled from source with gcc 4.8.5 and with --enable-R-shlib enabled. It was run in batch mode.

• install_r_3.3.3_gcc4.8.5.sh Downloads, compiles, tests and installs R 3.3.3 and the Rmath library.

• R 3.3.3 Modulefile located on the system at /usr/local/modulefiles/apps/R/3.3.3/

• Install log-files, including the output of the make check tests are available on the system at /usr/local/packages/apps/R/3.3.3/gcc-4.8.5/install_logs/

Version 3.3.2

• What’s new in R version 3.3.2

This was a scripted install. It was compiled from source with gcc 4.8.5 and with --enable-R-shlib enabled. It was run in batch mode.

• install_r_3.3.2_gcc4.8.5.sh Downloads, compiles, tests and installs R 3.3.2 and the Rmath library.

• R 3.3.2 Modulefile located on the system at /usr/local/modulefiles/apps/R/3.3.2/

• Install log-files, including the output of the make check tests are available on the system at /usr/local/packages/apps/R/3.3.2/gcc-4.8.5/install_logs/